DEVIL OF AN UPSET ARIZONA STATE ENDED NEBRASKA'S 26-GAME STREAK AND JOINED THE NATIONAL-TITLE RACE

On the warm afternoon of Labor Day, five days before Nebraskawould open its football season with a 55-14 pasting of MichiganState, Cornhuskers junior defensive end Grant Wistrom paused ashe left the practice field in Lincoln and pondered the ribbon ofgreatness that stretched back over two years. His eyes grew widewith wonder. "I've never played in a loss," Wistrom said. "I'venever been on the field when we lost a game." He let the thoughtdie and slowly shook his head at the improbability of such arun. The Nebraska winning streak, which included back-to-backnational titles, had reached 26 when the Huskers arrived inTempe last Saturday for a game against Arizona State.

Like Mike Tyson in the ring, Michael Johnson in the 400 metersand NBC on Thursday night, Nebraska football was an unbeatableconstant. Opposing coaches, struggling with scholarshiplimitations and galloping parity, regarded the Cornhuskers withawe. "As far as I can tell, everybody is in a big group tryingto catch up to Nebraska," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said inmid-September.

Before last week's game, Arizona State coach Bruce Snyderrecalled the Sun Devils' humiliating 77-28 defeat last year inLincoln and said, "I could live with another loss to Nebraska.What I'm most concerned with is getting blown out again. It tookus almost a month to get over that loss."

Big deal. It will probably take Snyder and the Sun Devils 10years to recover from the events of last Saturday night, thoughthey won't try too hard to erase the memory. Spurred on by thebitter memory of the 1995 loss, and inspired by the emotionalhalftime dedication of the Sun Devil Stadium field to formercoach Frank Kush, Arizona State (3-0) not only beat the Huskersbut also shut them out 19-0. Nebraska's shocking loss,consummated during the small hours of Sunday morning in much ofthe rest of the country and carried on TV by only a few cablesystems, nonetheless rippled seismically across the landscape ofcollege football.

The Cornhuskers squad that pounded Florida 62-24 in the 1996Fiesta Bowl in Tempe was one of the best college football teamsin history. With 14 starters back this season, including sevenon the brilliant defense, Nebraska seemed poised to win anunprecedented third consecutive national championship. But lastSaturday night the Huskers were outgained in total yards 401-226and were nailed for three safeties. In retrospect perhaps thedifficulties that Nebraska's secondary had with Michigan Stateon Sept. 7 should have been given greater attention. LastSaturday night, blown coverage by the Cornhuskers led to thegame's only touchdown, a 25-yard pass from Sun Devils seniorquarterback Jake Plummer to senior wideout Keith Poole. And itnow seems naive to have assumed that the Huskers' offensewouldn't suffer after losing quarterback Tommie Frazier. Hisreplacement, Stanford transfer and Nebraska native Scott Frost,had a dreadful night against the Sun Devils, with just six passcompletions in 20 attempts and with a hand in all threesafeties. "We knew a lot about their offense," Snyder saidafterward. "The one thing we didn't know about was Scott Frost.Maybe he was the next Tommie Frazier. But we decided that wewanted to take away everybody else and see if Frost could beatus."

The beneficiaries of Nebraska's improbable loss stretch fromFlorida to California. "Unbelievable," junior All-Big Tencornerback Shawn Springs of Ohio State said on Sunday, a dayafter the Buckeyes ran their record to 2-0 by beating Pitt 72-0."They lost. Now everything is up for grabs." It had been assumedthat the road to the national title would end with theCornhuskers playing some opponent in the Sugar Bowl. But withNebraska (1-1) dislodged from the top spot in the rankings, theRose Bowl, which matches the winners of the Big Ten and thePac-10, is suddenly a possible site for a national-title game.(Would you believe Arizona State against Ohio State?) Andvarious undefeated teams--No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Florida State,No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 10 Miami and No. 18 Virginia Tech--findthemselves fighting for two spots, not just one, in the SugarBowl, which will be the national-championship game if the RoseBowl doesn't horn in on the action. Games such as thisSaturday's between Notre Dame and Ohio State are suddenly moremeaningful, and the air may yet thicken with controversy if theeventual Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl matchups preclude a truenational-championship game.

The challengers for the title now must include Arizona State,which hasn't been to a bowl since the 1987 Freedom Bowl. It has19 starters back from a team that went 6-5 a year ago, withthree losses by a total of only eight points. There was muchbuzz about the Sun Devils in the preseason, yet few observerspredicted that Arizona State's resurrection would begin with awin over Nebraska.

At the heart of the upset was Plummer. "I've got the bestquarterback in the country," Snyder says of the four-yearstarter, who has toiled in the relative obscurity of the softPac-10. Plummer was sacked by Nebraska six times, but hecompleted 20 of 36 passes for 292 yards. He is not the onlystandout on the Sun Devils' roster. Poole and offensive lefttackle Juan Roque were All-Pac-10 last season. Against Nebraska,defensive end Derrick Rodgers, a 24-year-old junior collegetransfer, had 10 tackles and a sack and dropped Frost for one ofthe safeties. Nebraska wasn't beaten by accident.

The postgame celebration in Sun Devil Stadium was loud andemotional. Arizona State fans flooded the field and pulled thegoalposts to the turf. After this remarkable night they envisionmany more victories.

Snyder, unlike his fans, suddenly found reason to worry. "Whenconfidence turns to arrogance, you lose that fear," he saidafter the game. "That's not good. I think a lot of guys on ourteam right now are saying, 'Damn, we're good.'

"And I don't know...," Snyder said, reconsidering and once moreembracing the joy. "Can you blame them?"

COLOR PHOTO: SCOTT TROYANOS Vince Amey (98) and the Arizona State D held Huskers rushers like Ahman Green to a scant 130 yards.